Penguins Go Pop
Penguins Go Pop were formed in the late 80s by Richard Penguin (Vocals, percussion, and songs), John Hough (Guitar, Bass, Fiddle and Keyboards) and Mark 'scoop' Wyatt ( Guitar and Bass). Around that time they shared a house in Little Armes Street in Norwich and recorded their early demos at Mark's Scoop studios. They soon added Drummer Andy Mickleburgh and Guitarist Claude Alberts and began playing live. Richard. Mark and Andy were the three constant members with at different times people such as Stephen Bennett and Audrey Mcintyre playing keyboards, Andy Butler playing guitar and Tim Vialls playing Bass. John and Claude also returned after leaving at different points. They built up a small but dedicated following for their quirky, offbeat, lyrical songs and played a couple of reunions. Richard now runs his own press and promotions, and bookings agency working with musicians, writes a music column, broadcasts a radio show, and until early 2012 ran a live music night in a cafe in Norwich. Mark recently returned to live in Norwich, and Andy travels the world in between working in Norwich. John has been living in mid Wales since the early 90s, sadly Claude died of a heart problem in the early 2000s. Stephen works at UEA and still plays music, Andy B is a respected loop guitarist, Tim lives in Exeter, but nobody is quite sure where Audrey is. In July 2011 for fun Richard and Mark got together with Graeme ( ex of The elephants) and played 3 of Richard's songs acoustically under the name 2 Penguins and an Elephant at his Acoustic and Eclectic night, and repeated this at the third birthday of the nights in January 2012. Who knows what the future holds? The album '20th Century Pop' including 14 songs written by Richard with John Hough and Mark Wyatt as Penguins Go Pop songs in the late 80s and John Bygrave as King Penguin songs in the 90s was released in late 2018, and got some very good reviews, and airplay. (THIS IS AN ALBUM WE WISH WE'D HEARD 30 YEARS AGO- IT'S ONE OF THOSE ALBUMS YOU LOVE IN YOUR YOUTH, AND EVER MORE IT REMAINS A MUSICAL COMFORT BLANKET. THEY REMIND US OF EARLY XTC AT THEIR MOST MELODIC AND JONATHAN RICHMAN FOR THE LOW-FI APPEAL, BUT THEY WILL APPEAL TO ANY FANS OF QUIRKY POP' '- JMC- MANCHESTER CHRONICLE SERIES ). The band aimed to play a gig a month from May 2018 to May 2019, but reached the 12 gigs point in early March 2019. The line up on the album is Richard Penguin, Mark Wyatt, and Andy Mickleburgh, with Peter Moore on Bass and Liz Moore on Keyboards, Violin, Saxophone and backing vocals. Liz and Pete joined the band in January 2016 and unusually for Penguins the band has flown since then. Peter recorded the album as well. Andy M has more or less retired from music but still plays the occasional live gig with us, and David Clark (once of the band Basti) has been drumming with the band for the past year. New songs will hopefully be worked upon soon. (Richard March 2019)